I posted the following comments regarding the differing visions for America of Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton on AJC columnist Jay Bookman’s blog yesterday, April 6, 2017. I have, also, read the April 5, 2017 column in the Washington Post by columnist E. J. Dionne, Jr. which I also want to share with readers of my blog on this post.

It is my belief that a world ruled by the wealthy, which Thomas Jefferson abhorred, is coming to fruition today with the choices made for Justices to the United States Supreme Court (the heart of Dionne’s column). I, also, see that the world’s direction for our common future continues to be pulled either for government ‘by the people themselves, of themselves and for themselves,” versus government pulled in the direction of serving a wealthy few, or the national and world plutocracy, again which Thomas Jefferson abhorred.
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Mary Elizabeth’s words in response to another poster’s comments on Jay Bookman’s blog:

“Thank you for your words of wisdom and for your hope, and for your belief in America’s destiny and tenets. Our Founding Fathers put their hearts, souls, and possibly their lives into creating this democratic-republic not only for Americans but for the ‘new world’ they believed they were building.

Our generation, must have the courage and the insight to build on what our Founding Fathers left for posterity. I must add that I hope the business men and women of this world will see, through the combination of the historian, professor president in Barack Obama and the business instincts of Donald Trump (probably in failure, although I hope will change and succeed) that the vision of Jefferson, not that of Hamilton, is what will keep America good, strong, and permanent in this universe for the distance, although the force of Hamilton’s economic knowledge was needed to launch America’s temporary power in this world. (By ‘temporary,’ I am referring to its first 2 and 1/2 centuries of existence.)

Jefferson, however, conceptualized what America was destined to become for the long-run when he combined two seemingly opposing concepts into one of harmony, to wit: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident; that ALL men are created EQUAL and they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, and among these are life, LIBERTY, and the pursuit of happiness.’

(Caps are mine to point out the two contradictory concepts that Jefferson made abstract enough in vision so that they would combine in the natural order of this universe.)”

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I, also, posted these words, written months ago from my blog, on Jay Bookman’s blog yesterday as a follow-up to my words, above, relative to the thinking of Jefferson and Hamilton and how their differing visions are being played out on the world’s stage today:

“This nation is evolving, simultaneously, in two very different directions and that is why there appears to be greater tribal politics than usual. However, the phenomenon that is occurring is much deeper than simple politics. It goes to the core of what America is meant to be. Was this nation primarily formed to ensure individual liberty or was it formed to ensure that all are equal?

One ‘side’ has to lead the way in shaping America’s future. Although the other ‘side’ will still impact that future, it will not prevail as the guiding influence of America’s future. In our deepest resources we know that this is true. This is why the nation is now so divided. One side will win in its impact and influence of our nation’s future for all citizens. Are we our brother’s keeper in America or are we totally on our own? On the one hand, we have the Cliven Bundys who will go to all lengths to stand alone for individual liberty against governmental intrusion of any kind on their individual rights. We, also, have the billionaire Koch Brothers on that side who believe, as Libertarians, that government should simply get out of their way so that they can wield whatever power they choose to wield, as individuals. On the other hand, we remember the values and beliefs of Martin Luther King, Jr., who believed that we are our brothers’ keepers and that we each have a hand in making our nation into a more perfect union by our commitment to that spiritual understanding. I believe that Abraham Lincoln would be on the side with Martin Luther King, Jr. because, although Lincoln started his tenure as Commander-in-Chief knowing that this nation must not be divided so that it could continue to be the beacon for liberty for all throughout the world, as he deepened in the course of the Civil War, he came to know that that war was, in truth, about whether slavery would endure or be eliminated in America. So, Lincoln, in essence, joined consciousness with that of Thomas Jefferson and later Martin Luther King, Jr. in understanding that the ‘raison d’etre’ of America’s formation was to ensure that all on this earth are acknowledged to be created equal.

I know on which side in America’s ongoing struggle between individual liberty and egalitarianism I am going to align myself. That is the side which lives out Jefferson’s words that we are all created equal. Our world is evolving, spiritually, toward Providence, in my opinion. That means that the collective American consciousness, in which we will come to realize that we are our brothers’ keepers, and in which we will come to know that all are spiritually equal human beings, whether one is a CEO of a major corporation or whether one is a lowly worker in that corporation, is the consciousness which must lead the way for America’s future. That is radical thinking, but it is what America must be about as she continues to evolve. We are at the turning point now. That is why America is so polarized today. The stakes are higher than any one individual’s life. What is at stake is the direction the world will move in the 21st century on its continuous movement toward eternity. Will we continue to think in terms of individual survival or will we begin to think in terms of the survival of humanity, as a whole, one being in communion with all others?”

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Now, compare what is going on in today’s Supreme Court relative to a possible plutocracy ruling our nation, and world, as foreshadowed by this article from Washington Post’s columnist, E. J. Dionne, Jr., on April 5, 2017:

9 Responses to Jefferson, Hamilton, and E. J. Dionne

We all have equal rights and we all have the same fundamental nature as animals with the faculty of reason, but that does not mean we have equal abilities and does not mean we are entitled to equality of results.
There are various things that create confusion and distortion in such matters. One is the pressure-group warfare resulting from mixed-economy statism. Pressure-group warfare pits people and groups against each other. This blog seems to be choking on the length of my full post, so I will post another separately.

Another is the altruist morality which Ayn Rand has disproven. Although most people still believe in the altruist morality, very few are suicidal enough to practice it with full consistency, and people vary in the degree and nature of their inconsistency. The conflict you describe is actually a conflict between those who uphold the statism that is the natural fruit of the altruist morality and of excessive egalitarianism, and those who recognize the danger and destructiveness of that statism, but don’t know how to fight it because they accept the altruist morality that is the root cause. The latter group come up with distorted and confused ideas attempting to reject statism without rejecting the altruist morality, including ideas which unnecessarily condemn some of the seeming beneficiaries of statism.

I read E. J. Dionne’s column. Both of the two dominant sides, “liberal” and “conservative”, are capable of doing very destructive things with the Supreme Court and other institutions, although they may persuade themselves otherwise. Indeed, it can be very difficult to distinguish between aggression and self-defense in pressure-group warfare. The only way out of this mess is to eliminate pressure-group warfare by eliminating its underlying cause, mixed-economy statism. This means establishing separation of state and economics by establishing laissez-faire capitalism.